Valentine
by PeetasAndHerondales
Summary: Every Valentine's Day, Peeta Mellark tries to win over Katniss Everdeen's heart.


_Five years old_

It was the first day of Kindergarten, and five-year-old Peeta Mellark was tripping over his untied shoelaces and clutching his bag of cheese buns anxiously as he tried to keep up with his father. He was excited, yes, but also nervous. Would the other kids like him? What if he didn't make any friends? Peeta felt his daddy clutch his sweaty palm as they walked, and that's when he realized that he had voiced his thoughts. He looked up to see his father's kind blue eyes meet his. His daddy smiled, "Don't worry, Peet, you'll be just fine." Peeta nodded; Daddy always knew what to say to make him feel better.

Peeta took a deep breath, and as he looked up, he saw something—or rather, _someone,_ who made his heart stop and his breath hitch. He stopped, and his father turned to see what had captivated his youngest son's attention. "Peeta, we need to get going…" his father began.

"Daddy, who's that girl?" Peeta gasped out in awe. Mr. Mellark saw him pointing at an olive-skinned girl with two dark plaits, silver-gray eyes, and a little red dress walking with her own father; she was the spitting image of him. And suddenly, Mr. Mellark understood.

"Why son, that is Lavender Everdeen's daughter," his father said nostalgically.

"Who?" Little Peeta asked.

Mr. Mellark bent down on his haunches so that he was eye-level with his youngest son. "I used to be in love with that little girl's mother when we were young. But she married a coal miner instead," he smiled sadly.

Peeta looked back at the lovely girl with two braids. Her gray eyes were soft and her smile was so bright and happy that it made his heart skip. She looked up at her father and chatted animatedly at him, and in that moment, he knew he would be _just like his daddy _and fall in love with an Everdeen woman. And this was good, because Peeta wanted nothing more than to be like his father. He wanted to be a baker _just like him _and bake cookies and give them away free to little bitty kids who were barely three and went to preschool because they weren't big boys like him. He told his daddy so, but his father simply frowned and looked at him sadly, and Peeta could not understand why.

"Alright, Peet, I need to get going," his father said, as all of the other kids started walking into the building while their teachers came out to greet them. The little girl in the red dress stood on her tiptoes to kiss her daddy's cheek goodbye, and Peeta wanted to follow after her. He wanted a kiss too. He hugged his father quickly and then started running towards the building, but he ended up tripping on his shoelaces and falling flat on his face instead.

The other kids laughed at him as he stood up, and the teachers shushed them as his father helped him dust off his clothes. Peeta tried not to cry because he was _a big boy _now, and his momma would slap him if she found out he had cried at school.

"Son, you need to tie those shoelaces," his father said sympathetically as he knelt down to tie them.

"Daddy, will you show me how to do it?" Peeta asked. He didn't like the fact that he still couldn't tie his shoes and that he tripped over his shoelaces _all the time. _

"Of course, son. What you need to do is double-knot them," his daddy explained, and then he started showing him how the laces crossed and went over and under, like crossing a bridge, and how you needed to make bunny ears and have the two bunnies cross the bridge. It all seemed confusing to Peeta at first, but he knew that with practice, he would get it right, as that was what his daddy had told him when he baked his first cookie. One day, he would learn how to make cheese buns, though, and he clutched his paper bag close to his chest at the thought of giving one to the pretty Everdeen girl.

Maybe that would make her fall in love with him.

Later on that day, Peeta's class went to music class, and he was pleasantly surprised when he saw the girl in the little red dress raise her hand high up in the air when the teacher asked who knew the Valley Song. The teacher referred to her as Katniss, and before Peeta could get a taste of the name on his lips, she began to sing. His mouth gaped open in wonder, and his heart leaped with joy as his ears were flooded with the sound of her beautiful voice. She sounded like an angel. She _looked _like an angel, and in that moment, Peeta was in heaven. But more importantly, he was a goner.

The days and weeks passed, and Peeta could not build up the courage to talk to her. No matter how hard he tried, every time he tried to approach her, his nerves would kick in, and he would trip over his shoelaces or his throat would clog up and he would open up a classroom window even when the teacher told him not to because he needed fresh air. He began to sleep with the windows open for this reason as well. Every night, Peeta would toss back and forth on his bed in the bedroom he shared with his older brothers, thinking of Katniss Everdeen. He would sweat from exhaustion and from the heat that would rise up into their second-floor bedroom. So he would wait until his brothers were asleep to open up the windows. It was thanks to the fresh air that he could breathe again, and it was for that reason only that he slept at all.

It was she who made the first move. It was Valentine's Day, and all of the parents had been invited to their special Valentine's Day party. At first, Peeta was shocked when he saw his mother show up, but then he remembered that their bakery was providing all of the goodies, so of course she had come for that. And he wasn't wrong in assuming this. His daddy had come up to him to hand him one of his beautifully decorated cookies, but his mother simply shooed him away when he tried to approach her, claiming that she was busy setting everything up and that he would just mess it up.

So Peeta sat back down at his desk to eat his cookie quietly, and he was more than astonished when he saw none other than Katniss Everdeen take the seat beside him. Peeta dropped the cookie he was holding as he gaped at her, but thankfully it landed back on his paper plate. His momma would whoop him in front of everybody if she saw him waste a valuable pastry like that.

"K-Katniss?" Peeta squeaked out after a minute.

She smiled. "Hi Peeta, I was just telling my daddy about you."

Peeta looked up to see a stern-faced Mr. Everdeen look down at his daughter in concern. "W-what?" Peeta wondered if he was in trouble already.

"I was telling him about how you were my boyfriend," she declared proudly as she took one of his sweaty palms in hers.

Peeta nearly fainted. Could he possibly be dreaming? "I am?" He couldn't be more awestruck if he tried.

Katniss nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, you know why?"

"Why?"

"'Cause I said so." And in that moment, she leaned down and kissed his cheek quickly before running off in the opposite direction, Mr. Everdeen chasing after her while shaking his head.

Peeta could not believe his luck. Katniss Everdeen had kissed him! He touched his cheek in disbelief, and he could still feel the lingering sting of her soft lips against his flushed cheeks. It was the best feeling in the world, and he just _had _to share this with somebody. So he stood up and ran towards his daddy to tell him what had happened, but in that moment his mother approached them and heard everything. She was _not _happy for him at all.

"You sound just like your useless father," his mother scoffed, "always depending on women to tell him what to do. I cannot believe you would associate yourself with that Seam trash, Peeta. You are such a disappointment. I do not know where I went wrong with you; you were a terrible mistake."

And with that, she stalked off, leaving his father torn between arguing with his wife and consoling his crying five-year-old son. In the end, he ended up taking a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe Peeta's nose. His momma was so _mean _to him sometimes, and he couldn't understand what he had done wrong this time. Everyone in the class was staring at him now, but he could care less. He tried to rub his runny nose with his fists, but his daddy told him not to pick his nose because the booger monster would eat his fingers, and that only made him cry _more. Everyone _knew that Jack's great-aunt Ripper had lost her hand to the booger monster when she was a kid, and Peeta did not wish to suffer the same fate. His life was hard enough as it was; the struggle was _real. _

It wasn't until all of the parents had gone home that Katniss approached him again, and he offered to share his cookie with her, splitting it in half so that that they could both eat it. "Don't worry, Peeta, the booger monster won't eat you. I've never seen you pick your nose," she said matter-of-factly.

"You've seen me?" Peeta asked incredulously.

Katniss nodded. "Oh, yes, I see you all the time. We're in the same class, silly. I've seen how you double-knot your shoelaces now so that you don't trip anymore, and how you always open up the windows when it's too hot."

"Learning to tie my shoelaces was hard," Peeta admitted. "And I also like to sleep with the windows open, so I can't pick my nose ever because that would just let the booger monster in real quick."

Katniss nodded understandingly as she finished up her cookie. He asked her if she had liked it, and she nodded happily and gave him another quick kiss on the cheek, and he blushed. "You're the best boyfriend ever," she said. That was it. He was in love.

_Eleven years old_

Katniss Everdeen no longer smiled at him in the hallways, or held his hand beneath the desk. Her father was dead, and Peeta did not know how to console her. He knew it was beyond him when she stopped talking to him completely. She started avoiding him and ignoring everything he said, and she never sat beside him anymore. Peeta was hurt by her rejection, but he understood that she was grieving, and there wasn't much that he could do to help her. He couldn't bring her father back. He couldn't even be her shoulder to cry on, because she wouldn't let him.

The days passed, and she began to appear thinner and thinner. Peeta grew very worried. When he expressed his troubles to his older brothers, they simply shook their heads at him, telling him it was a bad idea to start sneaking her some bread, as he had suggested doing. He couldn't let her die, but he also couldn't get away with it without his mother finding out, and he was afraid of what she would do to Katniss. Every evening, he would stare out at his window and watch her dig through the trash bins, and he would just sit there and cry because he was as useless as his mother had always said he was. He had to do _something_ and soon, before it was too late.

It was during those heartbreaking evenings that he discovered the beauty of the sunset, and he started painting it. He had an idea, and painting helped him think. Whenever his father would teach him to decorate cakes, he would come up with ideas as he painted them, and soon he had it all planned. He knew exactly what he had to do, and he knew that there was no more time to stall.

But the orange-red sunset wasn't there to inspire him with warmth and hope when it happened. No, it had been raining hard the day that he saw Katniss Everdeen dying of starvation beneath his apple tree. She was so thin and frail that the torn, filthy gray rags she was wearing hung from her bony frame even in the rain. Katniss had been pawing through their trash when Peeta tossed two loaves of bread in the oven and turned up the heat to let them burn. The smell of burnt bread soon wafted through the house, however, and soon he heard his mother's angry footsteps stomping towards the kitchen.

"You _stupid creature!" _she screeched as soon as she saw him put his hands into the oven and nearly burnt himself in the process as he took out the two burnt loaves. "You useless boy, look at what you did! Throw them out to the pigs," she spat as she cornered him outside the doorway and slapped him hard across the face.

Peeta barely felt the sting as he tore the loaves in half and tossed them in the general direction of the pigs. He met Katniss's desperate eyes as he threw the last piece of burnt bread closer to her, and then he ran back inside the house like the coward that he was. His mother gave him the beating of the life, but it was worth it, and he only cried himself to sleep because he was worried about Katniss dying.

But the next day, he saw her at school. She was alive, and he was overjoyed. She met his eyes once again, and he looked down shyly and saw a dandelion and picked it up. It was then that he remembered that Katniss's father used to hunt. The brutal winter was over and spring had come. He blew the dandelion and made a wish. There was hope.

_Sixteen years old_

Breakfast at the Mellark's was usually bland and consisted of two-day-old scones and tea without sugar in it. But Peeta had gotten used to it and he now preferred drinking his tea without having to use the "luxury" of using sugar for something other than bread. His mother was very strict about what they could and could not eat. He never complained though, because he had almost seen Katniss die of starvation once, and he knew that he was fortunate to have anything to eat at all.

After all of these years, he was still so in love with her. It killed him to see her strutting around town with Gale Hawthorne and trading with his father for the squirrels that she shot straight through the eye. He never approached her anymore. He wouldn't want to get on her bad side, after all.

It was Valentine's Day when Peeta finally gathered the courage to speak to her again. He needed her to know how much he still cared about her. She needed to know that he was a man in love and that he would always wait for her. He wasn't jealous of Hawthorne. Peeta had hope that Katniss would notice him again.

He had cheese buns and Valentine's Day cookies in his lunch bag, and he was planning to leave them for her at her desk with a note on them. But he felt silly as soon as he thought of it and decided that perhaps it was best to simply approach her. He took several deep breaths before finally walking up to her desk, where she sat staring longingly out the window, and placed the bag on her desk. She looked up at him then, her steely gray eyes questioning.

"Um, hi, Katniss. These are for you," he said, looking down nervously as he rubbed his sweaty palms on his khaki pants.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Happy Valentine's Day." He felt stupid as soon as the words had fallen out of his mouth.

She scowled at him but opened the bag of pastries anyway. Her eyes widened at the sight of the treats. "I can't take this, Peeta."

"Why not? I baked them especially for you…"

To his surprise, she smirked. "No, you didn't."

"Uh, yeah I did. Remember when we were kids and we shared a cookie? I made those for you. And also some cheese buns, because they're a family specialty and I have the feeling you will like them."

Her gaze softened. "Why are you doing all of this?"

"Because I want you to know that I'm still here," he said honestly.

And it was the truth. Forget the raw desire that coursed through his veins every time he saw her. Forget the lust that kept him awake each night. He didn't just want her. He needed her. His existence seemed to revolve around her, and his life felt meaningless without her. He didn't know what else to live for. His love for her was all that ever kept him going sometimes. And the rest of the time, it was the hope that she would come back to him that kept alive each day. _Please acknowledge my existence_, he almost wanted to scream. It was there, inside him, ticking like a time bomb. He knew it was ridiculous, but he could just explode with emotion at any moment now.

Katniss licked her lips as she took out a cookie with a dandelion painted on it. She paused for a second, and then looked up at Peeta. "I remember," she said softly, "the day we shared a cookie in kindergarten and I said you were my boyfriend," she blushed.

Peeta grinned. "Yeah, and I was the best boyfriend ever, remember?"

She laughed. "We were just kids, Peeta."

But before Peeta could argue that it didn't matter because he was still crazy about her, the teacher announced that class was about to start. Peeta went back to his seat, but not before giving Katniss one last glance, and she smiled at him. Peeta nearly burst with happiness and gave her one last grin.

The teacher began reciting an old poem for Valentine's Day:

_It was many and many a year ago,_

_In a kingdom by the sea,_

_That a maiden there lived whom you may know_

_By the name of Annabel Lee;_

_And this maiden she lived with no other thought_

_Than to love and be loved by me._

_I__ was a child and __she__ was a child,_

_In this kingdom by the sea,_

_But we loved with a love that was more than love—_

_I and my Annabel Lee—_

_With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven_

_Coveted her and me._

Peeta was scribbling notes on a piece of paper as he listened to the poem, passing a note to Katniss, who sat in front of him. He tapped on her shoulder, and she discreetly took the piece of paper in between her thumb and forefinger before unfolding it carefully underneath her desk. She nearly burst into a fit of giggles. The note said:

_I was a child, and she was child,_

_In this kingdom by the Seam,_

_But we loved with a love that was more than love,_

_I and Katniss Everdeen_

She scribbled something down on the piece of paper and handed it back to him. He smiled as he read the note: _You make beautiful things. Your pastries. Your paintings. Your words. You have a weakness for beautiful things._

He quickly took a pen and wrote back, _Having an eye for beauty isn't the same thing as a weakness. Except possibly when it comes to you._

She took the note and turned back to him and blushed, but not before rolling her eyes at him. _You're crazy_, she mouthed.

_For you_, he mouthed back.

She turned back around and didn't look at him again until class was over, and they both ran out of the classroom as fast as they could. It was lunchtime, and they had a silent mutual agreement to go outside in the snow, in the back of the building where young couples often made out so the teachers wouldn't see them. Katniss backed up Peeta against the brick wall and crashed her lips into his before he could even respond.

Her lips were chapped, yet soft, and her mouth was hot against his. She pulled away too soon and said, "Those cheese buns drove me crazy."

They laughed breathlessly at this, and then they kissed some more until lunch break was over. They were so heated by desire that they couldn't even feel the cold winter wind. He touched her braid and cupped her face as she grinded her hips against his. He had a raging erection by the time they had to go back to class, but it was worth every second. It was the best moment of his life.

It was the first time he kissed Katniss Everdeen.

_20 years old_

Katniss's mouth descended on Peeta's cock as he clutched the steering wheel of his car. It wasn't the first time she went down on him, but it was definitely the first time she had done it while they were in the middle of traffic. Peeta honked the horn by accident as Katniss took him deeper into her throat.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Peeta cried out as she sucked him even harder. He thrust into her mouth, and she moaned, the vibration in her throat making him twitch. He bit his lip hard, almost drawing blood to stop himself from crying out. He turned up the radio as Luke Bryan sang.

_Gonna sound like a winner when I lay you down and love you right,_

_Yeah that's my kind of night!_

Peeta came at that moment, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as Katniss swallowed it all. She sat up and wiped her mouth as she gave him a mischievous grin, looking a little too satisfied with herself as she helped him tuck himself back into his pants. The light finally turned green after what seemed like 84 years, and Peeta stepped on the gas pedal like he couldn't get home fast enough.

It was Valentine's Day.

And while this day meant that they would get to eat Valentine's Day cookies and cheese buns, it was no longer the same as when they were younger. No, Valentine's Day might as well be Sex Day or Vagina Day, as Katniss liked to call it. He _did _go down on her a lot; she wasn't the only one who loved to give oral.

"That was fucking incredible, Katniss," Peeta said, as he casually pretended to put his arm around her as an excuse to touch her tits.

"Stop it, Peeta, we're almost home!" she giggled as she pushed his hand away.

"Oh, look who's talking," he scoffed.

"Well at least I did it behind the scenes."

"More like _below _the scenes," Peeta smirked as he reached down to stroke her clit over her clothes. They couldn't get enough of each other.

"Ugh, Peetaaaaa stop…." She clenched her thighs so he couldn't rub her, but he already knew she was wet for him; her eyes were onyx instead of their usual gray, and her cheeks were flushed.

When they arrived home, they ran out of the car, Peeta dropping his keys twice before he could unlock the front door. Katniss shoved him inside and slammed him against the door, locking it behind them as she attacked him with her lips. She was so desperate for him he almost laughed, but the sound died in his throat when she began to stroke the prominent bulge in his jeans.

He instantly picked her up as she wrapped her legs around his waist, carrying her to the bedroom. They usually settled for the couch during times such as these, but their couch already had more prints on it than a beach in full summer. And since they were going to go at it all day, Peeta figured they might as well start where they were going to end up anyway.

He tossed her down on the bed as he tried to balance himself over her, with Katniss still ravaging his lips and pulling and tangling her hands on his messy blonde curls. He thrust his hips towards hers, rubbing his aching erection against her clit so that they both gasped at the contact. They couldn't tear their clothes off fast enough.

"I want you inside me _now _Peeta," Katniss groaned when he started sucking on one of her nipples while he massaged her other breast.

"Fuck, Katniss, you're soaked," he groaned when he dipped his fingers into her center. He rubbed her clit with his thumb playfully, pressing his weight into the mattress with his other hand for balance.

She bit her lip_—_something that always drove Peeta _crazy— _and she took him into in her hand commandingly as she stroked him thoroughly and vigorously. Peeta hissed at her touch before leaning in to kiss her again and help her guide him inside her. He dipped his hips as she lifted hers until he was fully sheathed inside her. "Ungh, Katniss, you feel so fucking, _ahhh_," he muffled his moan into her neck as he felt her velvety walls clench him as he thrust into her.

Katniss squeezed his ass as he fucked her, and he couldn't do it fast enough to meet her demands. "Faster, harder, ahhh, right there!" she cried out.

She flipped them over so that she was on top instead, riding him hard and taking complete and total control. Katniss held on to Peeta's muscular shoulders as she tossed her head back when she slammed down deeper, and Peeta took this opportunity to sit up and take one of her breasts into his mouth, his hands holding on to her ass as the _slap slap slap _of their skin and the sounds of their moans filled the darkened room.

"Katniss, I'm so close," Peeta groaned, reaching down to rub rapid circles over her needy clit. She came right before she did, screaming out his name as he thrust up into her one last time before he came. He came so hard he could see his semen dripping down her thigh. She stood up to clean herself up before coming back to join him quickly. They fell back down on the bed, exhausted, and didn't wake up until the second round. By then, the sun had gone down, and Peeta was stroking her long chocolate tresses of hair as he stared at the sunset outside the open window.

"I want to freeze this moment right here, right now, and live in it forever," he whispered into her ear.

"I'll allow it," she smiled.

And she did, every single Valentine's Day.

_**A/N- **__I would like to thank Jessa (misshoneywell) for running another amazing PiP challenge and giving Everlark authors inspiration to post something during the holiday season. There are some wonderful fics over at promptsinpanem on tumblr that I would really recommend reading. I would also like to thank my amazing and hardworking beta, court81981, for betaing this for me so that it is not as awful as the one I posted on the blog LOL. If you haven't read her PiP submission, _"Sugar and Spice" _yet_, _then you are missing out because it is all sorts of flawless and steamy. Last but not least, thank you so much to all of my readers for sticking with me, you guys are the best. _


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